Two words pop up the most when listening to Jana Bean discuss her 2026 ProRodeo season, which just concluded with a decisive win in the average at the Boot Barn Turquoise Circuit Finals Rodeo held in Cave Creek, Arizona, November 5-7, 2026:

Blessed and fun.

“Everything just seemed right. God kept opening all the doors and I just walked through them,” Bean, a three-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier, said. “I left for the summer with just a little bit won and ended up 23^rd in the World. It was a lot of fun.”

In Cave Creek, she started her circuit finals run with a pair of round wins, a 15.91 that just edged out reigning circuit finals champion Katelyn Scott in the first go, and a 16.01 from the bottom of the ground in round two.

On the final night, Bean and her great horse Wick were solid at 16.27, taking third behind Brittney Hawley’s round-winning 16.00, but finished with 48.19 on three head, more than a half a second ahead of Hawley and the rest of the field to capture the first circuit finals average title of the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame barrel racer’s career.

“I’ve never won an average or a year-end title,” Bean laughed, noting a pair of opportunities that slipped by in the past. “It’s such an honor; honestly, I haven’t won a ton of averages, I’ve won go rounds. So that was fun.”

NFR-bound Scott held on for the year-end championship, her second straight title, though Bean cut her $6,000-plus lead down to just $508 during the finals.

Bean was quick to thank the Turquoise Circuit President and directors for “an amazing finals” in its second year in Cave Creek.

“My horse worked fantastic,” she added of Flashin Bills, known as Wick, the seven-year-old son of First Moonflash out of the Born Ta Be Famous daughter, UX Sweet Vanila Fame. “I couldn’t have asked for him to be any better, just spot on.”

“We were on the bottom of the ground twice but he was just strong and consistent,” Bean continued. “When he worked like that, it just gave me so much confidence, which gives him more confidence so it was just fun.”

That cycle can be one that brings great joy or beats a rider up mentally and Bean has been running and training long enough to experience both sides. After three straight NFRs from 2014-2016, including a win in round ten in her last trip down the alley in Vegas, Bean had a couple of heartbreaking finishes in 2017 and 2018, finishing just outside the top 15.

Leaning on her faith, the resilient cowgirl stepped away from the full-time road but continued to train winning barrel horses before circumstances lined up for her successful 2026 campaign.

For all the highs, Bean’s year was not without crushing lows.

She began the season with two outstanding horses, Vizion, who was raised by Bo Hill and trained by Kynzie Rae McNeill, who asked Bean to run him for her, and Wick. Vizion did the heavy lifting early in the season, including peeling off a trio of Turquoise Circuit wins in March, one in Cave Creek.

Tragically, Vizion suffered what would be a fatal injury mid-season but his brilliance was acknowledged by Bean’s fellow Turquoise Circuit barrel racers prior to the finals. Vizion was voted the circuit’s Horse of the Year.

“He was just a freak,” Bean noted. “He went 110% with no slow down. I won a lot of firsts but he had a style that was hard to keep him from hurting himself.”

On the other side, Wick came to Bean from Shirley Ankrum in May of 2024 and began the season as a solid performer just not rodeo-seasoned.

“Megan Lewis bred him and Shirley trained him,” Bean said. “His dam was trained and run by Samantha Flannery and was a really good mare. Wick is Born Ta Be Famous and Frenchmans Guy so he has some run, some sense and some looks.”

While on the road with Vizion, Bean plugged Wick in some places, making a solid outing at Tucson that gave her confidence to try him at the Cinch Chute-Out in San Angelo.

“I was a little timid with him because he was so green at Tucson but we ended up close to making the short go so I ran him in San Angelo. He won both rounds there and then went and set a new arena record at Thermal, California.”

Wick came on strong from that point, showing Bean that he was more than a solid placer, but a horse that could compete at the top end as evidenced by a second-place finish in Cheyenne and the nearly $9,000 pickup in Cave Creek, money that jump-starts her 2027 campaign.

“I’m going to go,” Bean said of her plans for next year. “I got into all the winter rodeos. It’s been a few years since I had the opportunity to run at all the money at those and I’m hoping to get into Calgary through the new year standings.”

She’ll also get a chance at big money at the NFR Open in Colorado Springs in July thanks to the circuit finals win. Her only other appearance at ProRodeo’s crown jewel of the circuit system was when the event was called the Ram National Circuit Finals and was held in Kissimmee, Florida.

“I’m very excited to get to compete at the NFR Open,” Bean said. “It counts for the NFR and there is so much money to be won. To have that opportunity is so cool.”

Admitting that she’s never lost the dream to compete at the Finals again, Bean also says that her perspective has changed a lot in the decade since she last qualified.

“It didn’t devastate me not to make the Finals this year . . . I was more devastated to come home with an empty hole in the trailer,” she said. “I just have a different perspective now that I’m older and because I had it before.”

“I look back and think of how I used to feel if I didn’t win something,” she continued. “Now, I am just grateful for the chance. I am just thankful to be there so I definitely have a different outlook.”

As always, Bean will continue to lean on her faith and her family moving forward.

“We’re going to go and I will just see where He takes me and good Lord willing, if it’s His plan, we’ll get there.”

“No matter what, I just feel blessed.”

2026 Turquoise Circuit Finals Results

For results from every 2026 WPRA circuit finals, see Rolling Updates: 2026 WPRA Circuit Finals Barrel Racing Results.

Average

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Total Finals money

Year-end standings

Top 15, figured from the WPRA’s Oct. 2 circuit board plus finals money. UNOFFICIAL